GUI "click" sound delay

[Benjamin J 751]

I have run into troubles before with FSX, where one of the synptoms would be a delay of click sounds in the GUI when pressing buttons. I did a complete reinstall today because the situation was getting out of hand. The "click" waiting time would sometimes be a few minutes. In that time, I wouldn't be able to select anything but the Active Runway in the airport selection screen, for exmaple. Other problems were weird loading of AI aicraft, where they would only be textured when within 1 or 2 miles or so, and when going into any window that would make the screen black (like the Map windows, for instance), I wouldn't be able to return if the aircraft I was flying would have been advanced (such as the PMDG 747).So anyway, a reinstall.The "click" sound waiting time was tiny, so the problem seemed solved. However, now that I have begun installing some sceneries, the waiting time seems to have increased a bit and I'm weary of this fact. my question is simple: does anybody else have such "waiting times"? So a quick summary: when starting FSX, there is a small period of time, where the buttons do not produce "click" sounds. After a short amount of time, the click sounds is heard again, and from that point on, the click sounds are heard when pressing a button, just as it should. it's only within the first 30 seconds or so after FSX is started that it doesn't seem to work.EDIT: Additional question: I have just now noticed that my WoAI in FSX is still untextured when viewed from too far (only 1 mile or so, maybe even less). However, the default FSX AI, which I accidentally left active, does not show this problem. Is this a problem that is inherent of the FS9-ported WoAI models?EDIT2: After some mroe testing, it seems the GUI click sound delay seems to be something happening primarily after a scenery library modification was done. Doesn't seme to happen for the rest... Is this behavior familiar to anybody?

[meshman 109]

While you see the startup GUI screen FSX is still finishing up it's internal business. More than a few times I have clicked to change an airport to fly from and seen only default runway locations. But I know there are parking spots available because I've made the AFCAD file for the airport. So I'll pause for a short time, go back and see the parking has "magically appeared". It's just the way the game works, quit worrying about it! :(

[Superpilotv2 2]

My system does also take its time when I hit a button. Sometimes it takes arround 30 seconds to push the button and play the sound. The odd thing is that this is mostly when I try to push the "Change Date and time" button. Cound be due to the lack of CPU power my system has. But this will change in 1 or 2 months anyway, so it´s not a big problem.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Ben, Your issue with the "click" sound delay is normal if your hard drive is still running and loading everything it needs to load in the background. When I first installed FSX with no addons the sim would load really quick after pressing the FSX icon and clicking on the select a/c menu or the scenery menu was also basically instant with the "click" sound. Through out time however, as I began installing a few hundred WOAI packages, addon user a/c, addon scenery, FSgenesis mesh, Ulitmate Terrain, etc. the loading times got longer and longer, while at the same time, the "click" sound wouldn't be instant like is was with just a default install.Now what I do, is click the on the FSX.exe and wait until I see my hard drive light go off before I start selecting any menus and once again the "click" sound is instant, however due to all the WOAI and UT2 a/c I have installed, it still takes about 30 sseconds or so for the a/c menu to load completely. I wouldn't worry about it. An SSD drive would probably make everything load quicker. In the mean time, I wouldn't worry about the delay of the click sound.On the WOAI textures, I have never noticed that, although I have taken a few hours and basically run all my WOAI texture folders thru batch conversion to add mips to all of them, so that could be why I have never seen what your seeing.

[Benjamin J 751]

Thanks for the feedback guys, good to know it's not just me.cmpbellsjc: what program did you use to batch convert them? Note I'm using Windows 7 64bit, so DDS Converter won't work for me.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

cmpbellsjc: what program did you use to batch convert them? Note I'm using Windows 7 64bit, so DDS Converter won't work for me.[/size][/font]

I'm using imagetool set up in a folder like this on my desktop.Then all I have to do is open a folder like the one called WoA_AIA_B738 and drag all the "texture" folders over to the folder where image tool is and hit the one called Aircraft_Make_DXT3_MipMap.bat. Once it runs the batch then I just reselect all the texture folders again and drag and drop them back into the WoA_AIA_B738 folder. Did the same procedure for all my UT2 aircraft as well. Although it is quick, doing the same process for hundreds of WOAI packages and UT2 packages does take some time, but its well worth it once its completed.Note: Some AI models texture folders wont work using the Aircraft_Make_DXT3_MipMap.bat, in that case re-run it again using the Scenery_Make_DXT3_mipmap_caution_all_files.bat and it should work.

[Benjamin J 751]

I'm using imagetool set up in a folder like this on my desktop.Then all I have to do is open a folder like the one called WoA_AIA_B738 and drag all the "texture" folders over to the folder where image tool is and hit the one called Aircraft_Make_DXT3_MipMap.bat. Once it runs the batch then I just reselect all the texture folders again and drag and drop them back into the WoA_AIA_B738 folder. Did the same procedure for all my UT2 aircraft as well. Although it is quick, doing the same process for hundreds of WOAI packages and UT2 packages does take some time, but its well worth it once its completed.Note: Some AI models texture folders wont work using the Aircraft_Make_DXT3_MipMap.bat, in that case re-run it again using the Scenery_Make_DXT3_mipmap_caution_all_files.bat and it should work.

Wow! If I send you my email address, would you be willing to send me these four files?

[Benjamin J 751]

*sigh*One reinstall further, and the problem is simply back. Every time something like this happens, I wonder why I even bother. Why dwell with FS anyway? There so many other games to play, ones that don't break down every so often because of an addon that was installed. I wish I knew what the problematic addon was. I suspect it's the PMDG MD-11, actually, but de-installing ti doesn't do a thing, I tried that before the last reinstall.Is there anybody out there that can offer some help?

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

*sigh*One reinstall further, and the problem is simply back. Every time something like this happens, I wonder why I even bother. Why dwell with FS anyway? There so many other games to play, ones that don't break down every so often because of an addon that was installed. I wish I knew what the problematic addon was. I suspect it's the PMDG MD-11, actually, but de-installing ti doesn't do a thing, I tried that before the last reinstall.Is there anybody out there that can offer some help?

The only thing I could suggest besides getting professional help would be to follow NickN's guide to the letter. Assuming you have done that already, the only thing I could think is that when you have uninstalled perhaps some remaining files were left over somewhere that are causing problems. For example, in the LDS 767 forum they say that if you need to uninstall it and reinstall it you need to manually look for some specific entries in your registry to delete, otherwise failure to do so could result in issues with that a/c when you reinstall. So I am wondering if during the course of your uninstalls of FSX something has gotten left behind that is causing issues.Also, if you uninstall all your addons (scenery/aircraft/AI), uninstall SP2 and SP1, then uninstall FSX, clean the registry, then start from scratch using Nicks guide. Then install each addon and test then I would imagine you should be able to pinpoint which addon is causing problems. If in fact it turns out to be the PMDG bird, open a support ticket with them and i'm sure they could get to the bottom of it. Ryan spent a lot of time figuring out an issue I was having with the JS100 and we got it fixed.If all that doesn't work, then its really hard to say. Perhaps its a video card driver that's not cooperating well with FSX, but works fine with your other games. In that case you could always use Driver Sweeper to completely clean out your driver and do a fresh install of that and use one of the many setup guides to make a profile for FSX.I'm on the same install from almost 3 years ago and with all the addons I have running I never have any problems, so it must be something specific to your rig rather than FSX itself.

[Benjamin J 751]

Thanks for the reply. I have tried what you suggest (uninstalling stuff one by one, then cleabning registry, then reinstall), but it apparently didn't help. I'm now uninstalling FSX again, but I'm not sure when I'll install it again. I think I need a break from this. It has caused nothing but frustration for the past few weeks and I need a break. Even if I do install, I will keep it all default for now, no addons or whatever. I'll test it thoroughly, and if I can do long flights with the default aircraft, then, and only then, will I slowly start reinstalling addons. This is complete madness and I'm already wondering why I stopped using FS2004. It worked, so why not simply stand by it...

[Benjamin J 751]

just an update... After taking a short break from all of this, I decided to fire up FSX and see how it works. It's almost clean. The only thing I did is enable the external FPS limiter. At the moment, it's all running fine. Flew about twnty minutes, looked several times at the map, made a flightplan - the sim still works afterwards and performance is very good around NYC. Next up are the Bojote tweaks. I will enable them and see how FSX performs afterwards. See if I can get back out of the map and flight planner. After that, I'll enable mega scenery packages, and after that scenery packges that use the addon manager. The addon manager is, until now, one of the few modules that I didn't really test - I somehow hope it's the cause, juist so that I know what's the culprit. On the other hand, I'll cry. There just are too many products that use the damn thing for it not to work.Although it saddens me, I don't think the Leonardo Maddog will go back in. For it to run, FSX has to be run in admin mode, otherwise my FSX crashes (don't know why). I'll have to make do with the Super 80 by Flight1, although I, until now, find it inferior to the Leonardo Maddog.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Glad to hear its going well so far. Like you said, just add one thing at a time and then test for a while so you can pin down the cause of your problem a lot easier. Hopefully you find the one addon that was causing you the issues prior and then you can get support from that developer.